ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Law and Justice has clarified a news item published in The News on Tuesday by Rauf Klasra quoting Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Farooq H Naek on bugging of personal telephones by the Intelligence Bureau (IB).

The ministry, in a statement on Tuesday, termed the news item as incorrect and misleading. It has been said in the news item "IB is freely bugging the personal telephones of people on the order of Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani". This is totally baseless. The statement appears to have been quoted out of context.

The minister had only stated that since a policy instruction introduced under the Telegraphs Act, 1885, it was only in very exceptional cases, in the overall interest and integrity and security of Pakistan and for purposes of counter intelligence and anti-terrorism that telephone tapping could be undertaken.

The only person who is authorised to take action in this regard is the director general (DG) IB who will be required to obtain prior approval of the prime minister in every case where a particular telephone is to be monitored and he will obtain his approval personally. This operation and the information obtained thereof would strictly remain with the DG IB and only to be passed on to the prime minister.

It was stated by the law minister that ever since the present democratic government came to power, the DG IB had not been authorised to tap anyone's telephone whatsoever. The honourable member himself did not point out even a single instance where the authority vested in the federal government or with any other authority vested by law had been violated, concluded the law ministry statement.